Apush Essay- 1950's Was an Era of Complancency

“The 1950’s were an era of conformity and complacency.” Give reasons for either agreeing or disagreeing with this statement.

The statement, “The 1950’s were an era of conformity and complacency”, is untrue to a certain extent. Though it is true that the post WWII America has the highest standard of living that no other countries can match, the 1950s, backed by the Second Red Scare, really had been a time period of tension and anti-communism.

The 1950s, inspired by the Soviet nuclear spying and aggression, starts off with the 2nd Red scare during Truman’s second term. During the second Red Scare, the entire nation holds itself in a great panic attack in search for Soviet infiltration in the American Government. Famous organization, HUAC (House of Un-American Activities Committee), was known for looking for communist influence in diverse organization, “blacklisting” the careers of those who are suspected or accused, making it a controversial violation of the 1st amendment. Another famous case of the Red scare would be the ventures of Joseph McCarthy. The supposed name holder of over 200 communist spies in the US government, McCarthy rode a wave of anti-Communist fear, tirelessly trying to discredit Truman administration and the Democrats. Numerous accused spy cases across America fed the panic that was driving the American public out of control. Court cases such as the Alger Hiss Case, and the Rosenberg Case fed into the public hysteria of anti-communism feelings.

Besides the fear for Communism, the Cold war itself was advancing through the 50s. By 1949, China’s ugly civil war resulted in the victory of the Communist Party, dubbed as “The Loss of China” by eager republicans trying to attack Democrats. By the start of the 1950s, the Korean War came immediately, following suite with the Chinese Civil war. From WWII, the Koreas had decided to separate at the 38th parallel. However, North Korea launches its surprise attack in attempt to unify the country...

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...encouraged the slavery growth. The colony Jamestown only survived,
because John Rolfe improved the tobacco. When Jamestown’s colony began their cash
crop was tobacco, since Europe had such a desire for tobacco. They started large
plantations and needed a lot of help to plant and harvest the tobacco. They got
indentured servants to help with the land for about seven years. Many of them died off
before they even reached their seven years, because of diseases such as malaria and
smallpox. They weren’t use to the conditions of working. Jamestown then brought in
Africans, which were more suitable for the environment and their ability work. However,
Africans were very expensive, but they worked for their whole life with some regulation
laws. As you can see, slavery in the south was very important.
Geographic factors also took an important part in the growth of slavery in the south. In
backbone of the south, there are rivers and hot weather. So the south could plant different
crops than the north. The most important crops in the south were tobacco and rice. North
and South Carolina, were best known for their mass production of rice. In North and
South Carolina Africans were used to help with rice. Tobacco and rice and many more
crops were part of the triangle trade, which was a multilateral system of trading in which
a country pays for its imports from one country by its exports...